so i picked up the paper some time ago and found something which piqued my interest, which then led me to more interesting stuff.

angelina jolie was quoted as saying:

“Someone saying to me that I’m thin is not a compliment. I’ve always been lean and this year I lost my mom and I’ve gone through a lot. I have four kids and I finished breastfeeding – it’s been hard to get my nutrition back on track. Instead of people saying I look like a person dealing with something emotionally, they assume it’s because I want to fit into skinny jeans.”

so i tried to google for a photo of her – no, not being skinny – but breastfeeding.

there was one, but detractors have claimed that it’s fake. oh well.

i was telling izad that the tummy flabs are coming fast and furious, and he tried to psycho me into jogging with him, but i didn’t have any running shoeees, i lamented. i asked if i could take pills instead, but he wasn’t too keen about giving me half his liver, so that’s out of the question. the last resort – i’ll just need to get pregnant again. then the fat is justified, and when i b/feed again, i’ll be skinny again! yes!

anyway, back to my googling, which led me to find other celebs who b/fed. and WOW! there’s like, a whole website dedicated to spotting celebs who are preggers, who’ve given birth, etc. and naturally, quotable quotes from stars who b/fed.

http://www.celebrity-babies.com/breastfeeding/index.html

yeah, i’m always happy reading about people b/feeding, STILL. macam fetish liddat. and celebrities – they have the power to inspire mere mortals, so it’s great that that they speak on the issue in public.

oh, and i also found this international breast milk project – more wow! it’s a programme for volunteers to donate breast milk to the babies in africa orphaned by HIV. very noble cause. imagine, you can be the ‘ibu susuan’ (milk mother) of many african babies, no need to adopt them ala angelina or madonna!

and today’s straits times, there’s a front page report on filipino mothers staging a protest against milk powder companies, by baring their painted breasts to the media. goes to show that you DON’T need to be hollywood celebrities to get the message across, after all. :)

“The companies making baby-milk formula, led by Nestle, whose founder invented the product 137 years ago, and a clutch of American health-care giants, have long drawn fire for hard selling an expensive and – if mixed with unclean water – potentially lethal product in the developing world. Breastfeeding campaigners say that has gulled generations of mothers in poor countries into believing infant formula is superior to their milk.”

i suppose their agenda is slightly different, in that it really affects the infant mortality in the country. according to Unicef, 16,000 infants die a year in the Philippines from incorrect feeding practices, including the use of formula mixed with contaminated water. and more and more poor, low-income people there have fallen prey to the advertising message that infants raised on formula will grow up to do well in school, and thus find good jobs. they also regard b/feeding as “old-fashioned, low-class and backward”. how sad. :(

the filipinos are surely one of the strongest advocates in b/feeding. i was hosting a group of filipino officials just last month, and during our discussion on infant care centre facilities, one of them was really impressed and happy when i told them that it’s a requirement to have a separate fridge for storing b/milk. they were even more impressed when i told them that many working mothers here are encouraged to express b/milk with the availability of nursing room facilities.

yeah, yeah. here i go again, huh, being all militantist? tsk.

now, somebody hand me some paint… *unbuttons shirt*

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